Jury Out & Hours

Life Sentence Given

for Murder on I-77

Kenneth Weiss, 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Ohio Penitentiary yesterday after a jury found him guilty of the firstdegree murder of a Garfield Heights man.

Visiting Common Pleas Judge John C. Bacon of

Meigs County sentenced Weiss, 2907 Monroe Avenue S.W., after a jury deliberated almost eight hours.

The victim, Michael E. Coyne, 18, of 4550 E. 104th Street, was found shot twice in the head and once in the abdomen along Interstate 77 near Wallings Road in Broadview Heights last Oct.

29.

Weiss testified he had taken about 80 or 90 barbiturate pills in the 48 hours preceding the killing, and that he did not remember the incident. He also said he was a homosexual.

His lawyers, Arthur T. Wincek and Bernard B. Direnfield, argued that he was innocent by reason of insanity and lack of evidence.

Testimony presented by Assistant County Prosecutors Fred M. Mosely and Thomas Tenwick indicated the shooting took place af ter a lovers' quarrel in the Terminal Tower concourse. One witness, a companion of Weiss, said he saw Weiss fire a gun.

Weiss was also convicted of abduction and kidnaping. Broadview Heights polie arrested Weiss moments after the killing when he approached an unmarked polie ruiser. They found the gun used in the killing. a .25-caliber automatic. in his pocket.

Direnfield said he would file a motion for a new trial Another suspect, Adı ian L. Hanni, 19, of 654 Bolivar

Road S.E., was convicted the killing Jan. 31 and also sentenced to life imprisonment.